A Geography of Godliness: The Distributed Church Text: Joshua 21:27-33
Introduction: The Politics of Real Estate
We live in an age of abstraction. Our politics, our morality, and our religion all tend to float in the ethereal realm of good intentions and disembodied ideals. We like our truths to be portable, applicable anywhere in general and therefore nowhere in particular. But the God of the Bible is not the God of abstraction. He is the God of dirt, of geography, of specific places and particular people. He is a God who cares about survey lines and pasture lands. He is a God who, when He saves a people, gives them a home. And when He establishes a priesthood, He gives them addresses.
The book of Joshua, and particularly this chapter, is a profound offense to the modern gnostic spirit. After the high drama of Jericho and the conquest, we get to the part that many modern readers skim. It is a long, detailed, and seemingly tedious list of real estate transactions. It is a divine Domesday Book. But if your God is not interested in the details of land distribution, then your God is not the God of Scripture. If your faith has nothing to say about property lines, then it is a different faith than the one delivered to the saints.
What we have in this chapter is the meticulous fulfillment of a promise God made generations earlier through Moses (Numbers 35:1-8). The tribe of Levi was not to have a single, consolidated territorial inheritance like the other tribes. Their inheritance was the Lord Himself. But this theological reality had to have a geographical expression. Their inheritance of the Lord was to be expressed by them being scattered throughout all the other tribes. They were to be a distributed network of godliness, a holy yeast kneaded into the whole lump of Israel. This was not a punishment, but a privilege and a strategy. They were to be the theological and judicial backbone of the nation, the teachers of the law, the representatives of true worship in every corner of the promised land.
This passage, detailing the allotment for the Gershonite families, is therefore not a dusty appendix to the story. It is a blueprint for a godly society. It shows us a God who is intensely practical, whose covenantal promises are worked out in tangible, geographical ways. It is a lesson in the necessity of a distributed, embedded church. And it is a picture, as we shall see, of the true refuge that God provides for His people in every generation.
The Text
Now to the sons of Gershon, one of the families of the Levites, from the half-tribe of Manasseh, they gave Golan in Bashan, the city of refuge for the manslayer, with its pasture lands, and Be-eshterah with its pasture lands; two cities. From the tribe of Issachar, they gave Kishion with its pasture lands, Daberath with its pasture lands, Jarmuth with its pasture lands, En-gannim with its pasture lands; four cities. From the tribe of Asher, they gave Mishal with its pasture lands, Abdon with its pasture lands, Helkath with its pasture lands and Rehob with its pasture lands; four cities. From the tribe of Naphtali, they gave Kedesh in Galilee, the city of refuge for the manslayer, with its pasture lands and Hammoth-dor with its pasture lands and Kartan with its pasture lands; three cities. All the cities of the Gershonites according to their families were thirteen cities with their pasture lands.
(Joshua 21:27-33 LSB)
The Gershonite Allotment (v. 27-33)
The text before us is a detailed record. It is the sort of thing that gets left out of the children's story Bibles, but it is essential for understanding how God builds a nation. Let us walk through it.
"Now to the sons of Gershon, one of the families of the Levites, from the half-tribe of Manasseh, they gave Golan in Bashan, the city of refuge for the manslayer, with its pasture lands, and Be-eshterah with its pasture lands; two cities." (Joshua 21:27)
We begin with the Gershonites. Remember, the tribe of Levi was divided into three main families: Kohath, Gershon, and Merari. Each had specific duties related to the Tabernacle. The Gershonites were responsible for the "soft stuff," the curtains, coverings, and hangings of the Tabernacle (Numbers 3:25-26). They carried the "skin" of God's dwelling place. Now, as Israel settles the land, these same men are given cities. Their first two cities come from the half-tribe of Manasseh, east of the Jordan.
Notice two crucial details right away. First, they are given "pasture lands." The Hebrew word here means a common area around the city for grazing livestock. This is intensely practical. The Levites were not meant to be destitute monks. They were to have homes, families, and property in the form of livestock. They were to participate in the economic life of the nation. Godliness is not poverty. Ministry is a vocation that requires provision. God provides.
Second, the very first city mentioned is "Golan in Bashan, the city of refuge for the manslayer." We cannot read over this. Of the 48 Levitical cities, six were designated as cities of refuge. These were places where someone who had killed another accidentally could flee from the "avenger of blood." It was a system of divinely appointed due process. It prevented blood feuds and vigilante justice, distinguishing between murder and manslaughter. And who administered this system of justice and mercy? The Levites. By placing the cities of refuge under Levitical control, God was embedding His law, His justice, and His mercy into the very geography of the nation. Justice was not an abstract concept; it was a place you could run to. It was a city called Golan.
A Network of Influence (v. 28-32)
The list continues, and as it does, a map begins to form in our minds. This is not a random scattering; it is a strategic placement.
"From the tribe of Issachar, they gave Kishion... Daberath... Jarmuth... En-gannim... four cities. From the tribe of Asher, they gave Mishal... Abdon... Helkath... and Rehob... four cities. From the tribe of Naphtali, they gave Kedesh in Galilee, the city of refuge for the manslayer... and Hammoth-dor... and Kartan... three cities." (Joshua 21:28-32)
The Gershonites receive cities from Issachar, Asher, and Naphtali. These are all northern tribes. Look at a map. The Gershonites are being placed as a holy web across the entire northern frontier of Israel. They are not clustered in one place, but distributed. Why? Because their job was to teach the law of God to all Israel (Deut. 33:10). In an age before mass media, the law was taught face to face, in the gates of the city, in the context of community. By distributing the Levites, God ensured that no Israelite was ever very far from a teacher of the Torah, from a man whose whole vocation was to know and explain the ways of God.
This was God's plan for national discipleship. It was not about a centralized Bible college in Jerusalem. It was about embedding theological expertise in every region. Each of these cities, Kishion, Abdon, Rehob, became an outpost of divine knowledge, a local branch of the Israelite seminary. This is a direct assault on the idea that religion is a private affair. For Israel, the knowledge of God was a public utility, as essential to the life of a city as a well.
And again, we see another city of refuge: "Kedesh in Galilee." The name Kedesh means "holy place" or "sanctuary." How fitting. A holy place becomes a safe place. Here in the north, just as with Golan in the east, God provides a sanctuary. This reinforces the point: God's holiness is not a threat to the penitent, but a refuge. It is only a threat to the defiant. The Levites, the guardians of God's holiness, were also to be the guardians of God's mercy.
The Sum of the Matter (v. 33)
The passage concludes with a summary statement, a divine accounting.
"All the cities of the Gershonites according to their families were thirteen cities with their pasture lands." (Joshua 21:33)
Thirteen cities. The number is not arbitrary. This is the fulfillment of God's promise, down to the last detail. Our God is a God of arithmetic. He is a God of precision. He does not govern the world with vague platitudes. He governs with specific providences. He promised the Levites cities, and here the Gershonites receive their thirteen, complete with pasture lands. This is a demonstration of the utter reliability of God. If He is this meticulous about the real estate portfolio of one Levitical family, how much more will He be faithful to His great covenant promises of redemption?
This detailed accounting is the bedrock of our faith. We do not trust in a God of hazy goodwill. We trust in a God who keeps His books balanced, who fulfills His contracts, who pays what He owes and gives what He has promised. The Christian faith is a faith of facts, of history, of promises made and promises kept. This verse is a testament to that faithfulness.
The Gospel in the Geography
So what does this ancient zoning commission have to do with us? Everything. This entire arrangement is a shadow, a type, pointing to a greater reality in Jesus Christ.
First, the Levites had no inheritance of their own, because the Lord was their inheritance. They lived in cities they did not own, scattered among a people they were called to serve. This is a picture of the Christian church. We are sojourners and exiles (1 Peter 2:11). Our true inheritance is not a plot of land in this world, but Christ Himself. We are "in the world, but not of the world," distributed throughout the nations to be a blessing to them.
Second, the Levites were the teachers of the law, a distributed network of theological instruction. This is the task of the church. The Great Commission is not to consolidate all believers into a holy compound in Jerusalem. It is to "go and make disciples of all nations." It is to plant churches, which are outposts of the kingdom of God, in every town and city. Like the Gershonites in the north, the church is to be a holy yeast, working its way through the entire loaf of human culture, teaching the whole counsel of God.
Most importantly, the Levites were the keepers of the cities of refuge. Golan and Kedesh were havens of mercy, provided by God, where the unintentional offender could find safety from vengeance. But they were a temporary and partial solution. They were only for the "manslayer," not the murderer. They offered safety, but not ultimate forgiveness.
But now, in the gospel, God has provided the true City of Refuge. That city is not a place on a map; it is a person. His name is Jesus. The writer to the Hebrews tells us to "flee for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us" (Hebrews 6:18). Jesus is our Golan. Jesus is our Kedesh. He is our sanctuary. The blood avenger, who is the righteous wrath of God against sin, pursues every one of us. We are not innocent manslayers; we are willful murderers in our rebellion against God. And there is nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, except one place. We must flee to Christ.
When we run to Him, we find perfect safety. Unlike the ancient cities, He does not just protect us from the consequences of our sin; He cleanses us from the guilt of it. The justice of God is not held at bay; it is satisfied at the cross. In Christ, the demands of justice and the offer of mercy meet and kiss. He is our refuge, and He is our righteousness.
Therefore, this list of names is not dead history. It is a living signpost. It points to the faithfulness of God in providing for His people, it provides a blueprint for the mission of His church, and it directs our eyes to the ultimate provision of His Son, who is our only refuge and our everlasting home.